Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Soviet Union) - History

History

The People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) was established in 1917. The Commissar was a member of the Council of the People's Commissars. The People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs replaced the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire after the October Revolution. In 1946 the Council of People's Commissars was renamed the Council of Ministers and the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs was renamed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

As Soviet foreign minister, Andrei Gromyko noted in his memoirs that working with Nikita Khrushchev was not always an easy task. As Gromyko tells it, "Khrushchev would constantly throw new ideas back and forth." His ideas were not always supported, but, as Gromyko noted, Khrushchev had a positive impact on Soviet foreign policy. Leonid Brezhnev, according to Gromyko, was a man much easier to do business with because he compensated for his lack of skills by discussing subjects openly within the Politburo. While he was easier to do business with in some areas, Brezhnev's slowness and lack of knowledge in certain fields made him hard to discuss foreign policy with. However, Gromyko noted that his disease should be taken in consideration. Mikhail Gorbachev's "new thinking" led to friendlier foreign relations with the Western countries, but his domestic policies destabilised the country, and in 1991 the Soviet Union finally dissolved. In 1991, before the country's dissolution, the Ministry was renamed the Ministry of External Relations. The ministry was succeeded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation in 1992 after Russia declared itself the legal successor to the USSR.